


A Quickstart Guide to Voynich RPG

by yhlee (etothey)



Category: Voynich Manuscript (Book)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Humor, Role-Playing Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 13:32:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16975506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etothey/pseuds/yhlee
Summary: Actually, it's an RPG manual.  A very special RPG manual.Thanks to Isis and UrsulaKohl for the beta, and to Sonya Taaffe for the beta and Latin help.





	A Quickstart Guide to Voynich RPG

**Author's Note:**

  * For [illumynare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illumynare/gifts).



Welcome to the **Voynich RPG** experience!

Most of you are familiar with everyday roleplaying games such as Romans and Barbarians, Knights and Dragons, or Crafts of the Warring World. **Voynich RPG** will take you beyond that and into an eldritch world of its own! Fear not: reports that the game causes interdimensional rifts, summons ghastly abominations, or permits naked singularities are highly exaggerated. As long as you follow the guidelines, you should be in no danger of supernatural happenings.

You will be represented in the game by your character. Though you may be a postulant, asteroid miner, or apprentice cook in real life, you could end up playing a queen, cavalier, or...an apprentice cook. (There's nothing wrong with loving your station in life!) While the character creation process may strike you as eccentric, give it a try, and have faith that everything will come out the way it's meant to.

Your character will be defined through four core statistics based on the humors of the mysterious world of Voynich: Aequor, Pomum, Notae, and Aether. Just as the human temperament is based on the four humors of blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, your character is defined by Voynich's own humors. Each character has a dominant humor that shapes their personality.

 **Aequor** : These characters are mercurial, have an affinity for music and the arts in ways that can be destructive or transcendent, and are prone to tempestuous outbursts.

 **Pomum** : These characters are hardy, well-grounded, and difficult to upset, with an ability to soothe or heal others and a thorough knowledge of herbalism.

 **Notae** : These characters enjoy intellectual pursuits, although they sometimes sicken easily, and tend to favor ideals over pragmatism.

 **Aether** : These characters are mystics, attuned to the celestial cycles and the otherworld of dreams, which sometimes makes it difficult for others to understand them.

But it's not so simple as throwing knucklebones to determine these four statistics. Besides, precision dice haven't yet been invented. (Interested fans of _aleam ludere_ should consult the forthcoming supplement Voynich in the Industrial Era.) Because **Voynich RPG** is more interested in exploring the eldritch influences in our world, we will instead use a more esoteric character generation system.

First, you will need to choose a patron plant. As anyone who has brewed a tisane for a headache or undertaken mandrake-hunting knows, plants can influence us greatly, for good and ill. Take time to pore through the pages of **Voynich RPG** in Section One: Herbal and find a plant that speaks to you. It's an especially good sign if you hear it calling your character's name in a voice that no one else can hear.

Some people will be called by a plant immediately, while others may need meditation, guidance from a neural implant, or judicious quantities of mead to connect to the right plant. Some things to consider are preferred pollination method, the color of the flowers, and toxins, including hallucinogens. If you're not certain of any details, you can always ask your GM for further information. After all, we wouldn't want any players to be pollinated by a method they didn't enjoy!

Next, you should draw up an astrological chart based on the diagrams in Section Two: Astronomical of **Voynich RPG**. For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to study the quadrivium, don't worry! As long as you're familiar with conventional astrological iconography and the twelve signs of the zodiac, you should have no trouble locating the stars that will determine your character's destiny. Again, your GM should be able to assist you if you have any difficulty deciphering the diagrams.

You'll note that each zodiacal sign is accompanied by a number of arcane female figures. Please don't be scandalized by their apparent nudity! They are clothed in the realm of Aether, it's just that it's impossible to fully see their garments in the material realm, and that's reflected in the illustrations. Once your character awakens, you, too, will be able to see the figures' splendid raiment, which reflect the sumptuary laws of the world of Voynich.

Finally, you will need to undertake a ritual cleansing bath with your fellow players. If you can get to a pond frequented by a local unicorn, that would be ideal, but if not, even a simple anointment with water obtained under the new moon should suffice. Even better would be liquid methane. The instructional diagrams in Section Three: Biological show you how to prepare yourself.

Once you have settled on an appropriate patron plant and zodiacal sign, and undertaken the ritual bath, you will join the rest of your gaming group in gathering examples of each person's plant. Don't worry about considerations of climate or growing zones. The nature of **Voynich RPG** is such that, even if you live in some inhospitable corner of Brandenburg, Flanders, or PSR B1257+12 b, you will find your patron. Be sure to look far and wide. Don't neglect fairy circles, weeds growing in the cracks between cobblestones, or glades lit by unfamiliar moons--any of these could be the home of your patron!

Your patron may initially resemble a familiar plant, such as a maidenhair fern, wolf's bane, or Cooksonia, but its true nature will become apparent when you study it under the influence of your stars. Harvest the plant during Matins while chanting the appropriate liturgies from **Voynich RPG**. Pay no attention to any anomalies that appear, especially if the constellations take unfamiliar shapes. In particular, it's normal for the sky to disappear entirely.

At the next ritual, you and your fellow players will need to brew separate tisanes for consumption, which will give you insight into the nature of your character. For this ritual, it's necessary for your GM to bring a copy of **Voynich RPG**. Make sure to address each other by your characters' names and to eschew any mentions of your everyday lives--it's all part of the immersive game experience. If you have trouble remembering who you are and where you came from, that's an excellent sign; it means that you're getting into the spirit of the game!

Some of you may have noticed that your GM's copy of **Voynich RPG** is missing pages. There's no need to contact the scribe for a replacement, which would take an inordinate amount of time to calligraph anyway. The "missing pages" are a deliberate feature of the game; not all characters will survive any particular gaming session. In any case, you will find the apparent deficiency is self-correcting, in ways that personalize each copy to your specific gaming group!

In other RPGs, characters who perish are no longer involved in the game. But in **Voynich RPG** , those characters who meet such a fate will instead be immortalized as part of the text. Contrary to reports, it's not at all painful to be flattened into a page, and anyway, human skin is entirely acceptable as a substitute for calfskin.

If by some chance you have come into possession of **Voynich RPG** but do not have a gaming group, be sure to donate your copy to a university so that more people can be exposed to this game and you can recruit fellow gamers! The more the merrier. We'd like to suggest the University of Paris, University of Salamanca, or failing that, any Ivy League institution.

With any luck, this quickstart guide will have answered your most urgent questions about this innovative new RPG. We look forward to deciphering your adventures, and happy gaming!


End file.
